Abstract:

This study reviewed the speech which was presented at a gathering to celebrate an Ukwuani personality in local journalism. Alaska Ekele is a household name and in the past thirty years he had etched his name on the space and desired to launch a fund for a Research Centre to cap his dreams for his people to be located at Novena University, Amai. It placed the speech in context of the travails of his people in their quest for rapid development in Nigerian. It made a content analysis of the speech and used it to x-ray the role of the local media as an instrument of development. It agreed with the speech that the development of the ethnic community may not come from political representation from the ethnic group because development has eluded the space despite its continued flirtation with the government and despite the enormous oil and gas resources it bore. Rather, the study concluded that the ethic space might have to seek development through the patriotic efforts of its non-political leaders who had taken the bull by the horn to establish private Universities and industries. It concluded that harmful practices in the space are under-reported.